"The Three Soldiers" Replica To Be Dedicated Monday At Riverfront Park

The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue on the Washington, DC National Mall commemorating the Vietnam War.  It was created and designed to complement the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by adding a more traditional component to the Memorial.

The grand plan has long been to erect a full size replica of “The Three Soldiers” memorial in the “David Webb Riverfront Park”, as a tribute to Roane County Vietnam veterans.

The memorial, believed to be the only “full size” replica in the state, if not anywhere outside Washington D.C., will be placed in the park’s war memorial area near the present fountain.  Long term plans are to place other memorials from America’s other wars in this area as money and support comes along.

At long last the pieces to the statues came in and were inspected and pre-assembled earlier this week by Cliff Cole, Gary Todd, and other members of the Legion.

The memorial was unloaded and positioned for concrete today at the park.  A formal dedication ceremony will be held at 11AM on Monday (Memorial Day).  The replica is not a full bronze cast, as the one in Washington, but it is what the local budget would allow.  The primary purpose of the memorial is to honor all of the Roane County veterans that served, and especially those that sacrificed all, in the Vietnam War.

 

This well-known sculpture by Frederick Hart portrays three young uniformed American soldiers.  While the military attire is meant to be symbolic and general in nature, the combat equipment displayed represents the figures as serving in either the U.S. Army, or U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.

Of the three men, the lead figure (in the middle) represents a Marine, as he wears a Type M-1955 body armor vest, which was worn exclusively by Marines in Vietnam. He is armed only with a Colt M1911A1 .45 caliber automatic pistol, which is carried in a Government Issue (GI) M-1916 leather pistol holster, positioned on the right hip.  The M-1916 holster is attached to an M-1956 GI pistol belt, and a small GI .45 pistol magazine pouch is carried on the belt's left front. The Marine wears a body-armor vest (but no shirt), along with Tropical Combat trousers and boots; he wears no headgear. Like his comrades, he carries a pair of plastic GI 1-quart canteens, carried in two M-1956 canteen covers that are attached to his pistol belt, and situated at the rear center hip.

The man on the right wears combat equipment consistent with a U.S. Army Soldier, and specifically, a Type M69 body armor vest, which was the primary armor vest used mainly by U.S. Army personnel in Vietnam, from about 1967 on.  His M69 armor vest is unsecured, and worn fully open at the front, which was a typical fashion of troops in Vietnam, as a measure in which to promote ventilation (in spite of reducing the vest's overall protective levels).  Draped around the collar of his M69 vest and hanging on his chest front, this Soldier carries a GI towel, which served to absorb sweat and cushioned heavy loads, and was a common practice of many Soldiers in Vietnam. In his left hand he carries an M16A1 rifle, the main battle rifle for both Soldiers and Marines, from about 1967 on.  His uniform consists of the Tropical Combat Uniform (jacket and trousers) and "jungle" boots.  As was typically done by U.S. combat personnel fighting in the oppressive tropical environment of Vietnam, the uniform jacket's sleeves are rolled up.  In his right hand, this Soldier holds an M1 steel helmet covered with a camouflage cover, that is secured over the helmet with an elastic headband (which itself retains a small bottle of GI insect repellent on the right side).  He also wears an M-1956 GI pistol belt over the waist of his uniform jacket, and it retains a GI 1-quart canteen and M-1956 canteen cover, situated at the left rear hip. Lastly, on a GI neck chain set, he wears a pair of GI Identification Tags (i.e. "Dog Tags"), which are visible on his bare chest, seen through the open front of his uniform jacket and armor vest.

The man on the left is slightly less specific in the service representation of his gear and uniform, but he appears to be a U.S. Army Soldier, as he wears a Tropical ("Boonie") Hat, which was widely worn by Army combat personnel in Vietnam (particularly towards the latter part of the war), and to a much lesser extent by Marines.  His uniform consists of the Tropical Combat Jacket and Trousers, and "jungle" boots. Like his comrade on his far left, his uniform jacket's sleeves are rolled up.  This man wears no body armor, and is armed only with an M60 machine gun, and he carries two separate belts of 7.62mm machine gun ammunition draped and criss-crossed over his torso.  He is also wearing an M17 Protective (Gas) Mask carrier on his left thigh, although U.S. troops infrequently wore or used gas masks in Vietnam. (They were used primarily when tear gas (CS gas) was employed in combat, such as by tunnel rats, and by troops engaged in urban/city combat, such as the Marines in Hue City in January and February, 1968). Under his uniform jacket, he also wears a GI M-1956 pistol belt, with two M-1956 canteen covers that are attached, each carrying a GI 1-quart canteens, and situated at the right rear hip. In order to portray the major ethnic groups that were represented in the ranks of U.S. combat personnel that served in Vietnam, the statue's three men are purposely identifiable as Caucasian (the lead man), African American (man on right), and Hispanic (man on left).  

These three figures were based on six actual young men models, of which two (the Caucasian, and the African-American) were active-duty Marines at the time that the sculpture was commissioned.  The Caucasian figure was modeled after James E. Connell, III, then a Corporal in the Marines; the African-American figure was modeled after three men, Marine Corporal Terrance Green, Rodney Sherrill and Scotty Dillingham; the Hispanic figure was modeled after Guillermo Smith De Perez DeLeon. 

It is hoped that if you are a VET, from any theater of war, you will come to the ceremony Monday and remember those that served and those that have gone on before us.

My thanks to the hard working Harriman American Legionnaires, and David Webb, for bringing this memorial to Riverfront Park.

A SCAR UPON THE LAND

As I mentioned previously, the “Traveling Wall” is visiting our fair city this week and weekend. As I viewed the Vietnam War Memorial today, I touched the panels where the names of Airman Fuller and Jones were imprinted. These Air Force Security Policemen died thirty days before I was to leave the country, making my final month the longest month of my life. I was “short” and afraid I would not make it home myself.

I just wanted to let them live once again, at least in our minds, and ask you to pray that the war against terrorism does not grow into another scare upon our land.

Gary Leroy Fuller - The Plains, Ohio – Married - 22 Years Old (Panel 15E Row 105)

Robert Henry Osborn Jones - Arlington, Virginia – Single - 21 Years Old (Panel 15E – Row 106)

Both died on February 27, 1967 at DaNang Airbase, South Vietnam during an early morning Katyusha rocket attack on the base. Fuller died as he sat up startled in his bunk from another explosion, about two hooches south of mine. Shrapnel caught the young man in the jugular and he almost surely died instantly. Airman Jones was wounded running for a bunker, catching shrapnel from the same rocket in his lower body. He died minutes later on a hospital ship in the China Sea.

This photo is of me next to the rocket crater that woke Gary Fuller. It was to the rear of the hooches, while the one that fatally wounded both Fuller and Jones hit forward of the hooches.

These are just two of the many young men (and women) who never got to experienced marriage, children, grandchildren, or any grand slice of life at all. The least we can do is remember them.

It seems we do not have enough time to heal from one war until there is another one - always an open wound on the land for one reason of the other. However, it is not as if we were not told – the Bible plainly says, there will always be wars and rumors of wars. And so it shall be!